Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-20
DAILY HERALD.
what irrigation Can DO.

n
is now in progress beyond the Sierra
Nevada. The great inland deserts of
Southern California are sprouting with
herbage and fruit. Where before were
sunbaked sand and alkali are now fair
gardens and thickleaved vineyards.
First oases arose as if by magic in the
desert, spots of green mottling the dull
browns and grays OF the land. Then
these oases began to expand and
stretch forth tentacles graphing the
barren ground and wrestling it from
desolation. The myriad of straying
arms then meet and interlock. Swift
ly the scattering GASES are linked and
swell into great plantations.
This marvel has been wrought by
the quickening power Of water. The
cloud banks that gather from the
Pacific have passed from time imme-
mortal over the parched deserts be-
meath to break in rain, snow and hail
against the Sierran peaks. The noun
tain ravines lie buried under the
deluge of snow, but the rolling plains
below the foothills have lain with
water all about them, but not a
drop for them to drink. The
rivers that cut their face run
full in the rainy season, but with
shriveled streams in summer, and the
occasional floods that overrun the
banks have been dreaded rather than
welcomed. A region whose soft air
and bright sky was perpetual lure to
immigrants was left solitude for want
of water.
Into this desert water has at length
been brought. The rivers have been
tapped near the foothills, but chiefly
the brooks and nameless streams that
have been lost in the sloughs and
marshes. From these the lOnged for
water is led in long open canals or
bitches for hundreds of miles from the
opening points. When the plantation
is reached, cross channels in network
conduct the water over the thirsty
soil. These myriad channels are
chiefly simple furrows cut with the
plow or hoe. For wheat, flooding
the surface in winter suffices, but for
horticultural uses sustained summer
flow is essential. In many places the
conduit bitches are supplemented by
artesian wells, and sometimes the
wells alone give the needed supply.
The land responds to this watering
with an astonishing yield. In many
tracts like the Fresno basin it absorbs
and holds water like a sponge. The
water seeps into it from each little
ditch, and the moisture gradually rises
to the surface. Thus where people
formerly had to dig fifty feet or more
for water, they now find it within ten
feet of the surface. Such land is Won
derfully fertile, Vines and trees grow
all summer, and bear great crops, and
delicate garden plants thrive luxuri-
antly. The course of the water bitches
can be mapped for miles by the rising
trees-poplars, walnuts and ever
green's that fringe their banks. OF a
truth, the waste places are blossoming
like the rose.
The trunk canals of Fresno alone,
according to writer in the current
Overland Monthly, carried $500 cubic
feet OF water every second, and will
water 610, 900 acres of land. Their ex-
tension to fertilize twice this surface is
entirely practicable. Their construc-
ton has cost $2,000,000, but they
have increased the value OF the lands
they reach from $l.24 to $50 and 800
per acre. A perpetual water right is
now sold with the land, subject only
to slight tax for the repair OF the
bitches.
The work on the ground is light
and women who have bought their
twenty or forty-acre tracts in some OF
the colonies enjoy guiding the small
streams from furrow to furrow, water
ing strawberry gardens with figured
tracery of a hoe instead of dimming
their eyes and breaking their health
as weary sempstresses. Small hold
ings in the Fresno region bought five
or eight years ago at from $50 to SAC
an acre are now worth 500, and
readily sell at that sum. Twenty
acres of six-year-old vines in 1885
yielded $275 per acre gross, or $225
per acre net. The net returns from
the same vineyard in 1886 were $500
per acre. In another instance fifteen
acres OF vines yielded sixty tons OF
raisins, selling for more than $l2, 900.
A lady in one of the colonies sold
twenty-five acres OF grapes at $40 per
ton on the vines, this price netting
the owner $44S0. The small growers
of the San Joaquin irrigated belt have
now established it as center of the
raisin industry Of the Pacific coast.
One-third of the total crop of the State
in 1886 came from Fresno-over 250, ,00C
boxes, or 8 1000 900 pounds. This was
three times the crop of the district in
1885. Other fruits grow equally well
and are not being produced to meet
the varied demand. 1t is entirely
probable that this redeemed desert
tract is capable of as close settlement
as the fields OF Holland or Belgium
and villages are now springing VI
everywhere over its surface. The
Transformation is one of the many
marvels which the West has in store
for the world.-[Boston Advertiser.